What could be so bad on this '16 Hyundai Sonata that the CAR WIZARD is sending it to the junk yard?

The are times when the CAR WIZARD 🧙‍♂️ has to give horrible news to his customers. This is one of those cases where this 2016 Hyundai Sonata is destined for the junk yard. What could possibly be so wrong with it???

📷 INSTAGRAM @realcarwizard 📷

[karlegonnielsen]

People say, they dont have time to check the oil and water in the car, but they have a lot of time for Facebook and Instagram. Its a strange world now a days.

[Tom-dzyo]

I'm an engineer and I've been a shade tree mechanic all my life. There are great mechanics local to you and lm a big supporter of conscientious shop owners like The Wizard, but one thing I've learned over the years, if you need an engine rebuild, NEVER go with any local shop who either wants to do rebuild themselves or who wants to sub work out to another shop to get it rebuilt.These people aren't working to any tight tolerances and specs like the manufacturer does!!! Spend the extra $ and accept only a remanufactured long block straight from the OEM manufacturer. Those long blocks are made and assembled on an assembly line and checked against close tolerances and specs that the OEM manufacturer stands behind. Not so for your local shop or mechanic doing an in-shop engine rebuild of questionable quality and questionable attention to detail. And don't think you're getting some great warranty from an in-shop rebuild because you won't.

[rtel]

cute hood prop lock. I had a 85 dodge caravan and their liftgate props always failed within 3 or so years. I just used a cheap small size locking pliers. Got a new caravan in 1991. The car is still running and the liftgate props are still perfect after 30+ years!

[thmqpgap]

The 2.4 theta engines are known for consuming oil, also the 2.0 Nu and Atkinson engines. Also the new Palisades are having oil consumption issues, we’ve replaced 3 engines on them already. Please check your oil

[evonnemcginty]

Wife drives a '15 sonata 2.4. I change the oil/filter q3k miles. Religiously. At approx. 75k I noticed there was about 2.5 qts at oil change. What did I do wrong last time? Started to check oil level weekly. The car was using 1 qt q1k miles. Then 1 1/2 qt. Went on like this. Thought to myself "now over 100k miles, too late for warranty claim. At 150k miles was using 4 qts q3k miles. Could not figure out where it was going. Changed plugs at 120k-no oil residue. No signs of leaks anywhere. Thought I was going to have to get another motor at my expense. "I'll wait till this one takes a dump then change it myself." I went to the dealer for a new water pump belt and told the parts person about the oil problem. "Wait here a moment" she went out and talked to the service mgr. She returned, got my belt for me and told me to tell the ser. mgr. what I told her. Long story short, because I had kept all of my reciept's, I mean all of them for 50 oil changes, we ended up getting a new motor at 158k miles for nothing. She already has 145k miles on the new one. Use about 1/2 qt q 3k miles now. No more Hyundai's for us, even with the new motor. Most people aren't going to change their oil that often. How could most people know this motor was so oil thirsty? Never found out where the oil was going!

[jessewynne]

The new engine cost half the value of the car!!Toyota had the same oil burning issues in their 4 cyl engines from 06-2010 from low tension rings getting gummed up from dirty oil sludge and letting blow by thru..the solution Toyota did was using g6 0-16 oil and changes every 5k and seems to have worked on my 07 2.4l rav4
So maybe worth putting new engine in and telling owner don’t get lazy on oil changes or this will happen again

[brucemitchell]

My niece had a Volkswagen rabbit convertible back in the early 90's that she completely ran dry of oil till the engine locked up. When I told her what was wrong with her car she said " Well i'll never buy another Volkswagen again!" I told her that the same thing would have happened if she had a Mercedes or a BMW. It's a vehicle, not a purse. It needs to be maintained!

[darkiee]

When you're taking your drivers licence in Sweden there's a "garage lesson" where you learn to check the fluids (oil, brake, washer, coolant) and other essentials.

[bulletheadbeatz]

My wife and I bought a 2016 Hyundai Sonata for our youngest daughter, who's in college. After driving the car just over 6 weeks, the engine locked up and put my daughter down on the highway. The oil had been changed 3489 miles previously. We had the car towed to the dealership, and after diagnosing the issue a week later, they said the engine had seized up. The car had 131, 410 miles on it and before that happened, the car ran perfectly. It didn't smoke or leak any oil. So they submitted a claim to have the engine replaced, but Hyundai denied the claim. The reason they gave was because we hadn't had the KSDS software update performed, which is included in the 953 recall campaign. Honestly, at that particular time, We were unaware of any such recall or software update, and Hyundai hadn't sent us anything recommending we have it done. Had I known the significance of it, I would've made sure to have it done! After all, recalls and such are free! So the car sat at the dealership for a long time while we tried to figure which route to take. They wanted to replace the engine for $7k+, which I thought was ridiculous, since we had paid only $7k for the car to begin with. So I decided to call Hyundai's claim line and try and plead my case, hoping for some sort of sympathy or monetary relief. Once I got someone on the line and pleaded my case, the person on the phone asked me for my VIN. She then asked me why did they deny the claim and I told her it was due to not having the KSDS update. She said "Sir, your car had the update performed on Feb 9th, 2022"; your claim shouldn't have been denied. So she assigned me a case number and said someone will call me in about 3 days to further my situation. In the mean time the dealership called me and said I needed to come get the vehicle due to them running out of room for other customers. I then told them what the lady said about the update and they told me they would go double check the VIN and call me back. They called me later that day and said someone had indeed "fat- fingered" the VIN, which still pulled up a blue 2016 Hyundai Sonata that hadn't had the update performed. The service manager said they would have to resubmit the claim and call me back. The next day they called and said the claim was approved and that they were extremely sorry for the 3 month long mix up, and that they would place our vehicle at the top of the list once the new parts arrived. This mad my wife and I extremely happy because our daughter really needed her car to get back and forth to class. She lives off campus... So if you know anyone who owns a Kia or Hyundai, make sure you advise them to take their vehicle in and have the update done, if they haven't already. Because that and low oil upon arrival, is an easy out for them and they'll surely deny your claim.

[kevinbarry]

Hyundai has been replacing those engines under warranty like crazy. Even for people who did maintain them according to the factory service manual

[FliesFLL]

Pull this engine and send it to "I Do Cars" here on YouTube. His dissection of this engine would be interesting....

Great video!

[Immopho]

Have a 2015 sonata with the 2.4l engine. With meticulous maintenance. At just 116k miles the engine randomly started misfiring and the check engine light came on while driving down the highway. After limping it home I got the car scanned and it showed a misfire in the 3rd cylinder. After attempting small fixes like spark plugs and plug wires I decided to take it to Long Hyundai, this was my second mistake aside from buying a junk Hyundai in the first place. I stopped taking our car there for oil changes initially because I found an oil filter I had changed the last time still on the car after I paid them for an oil and filter change. With the car at Long, Chris from service stated it had no compression in the 3rd cylinder and it needed head work ($5300), but was pushed to do an engine replacement which was quoted to me at $7-8k, that I would be responsible for. After trying and getting no real diagnosis on the actual problem and a very difficult time trying to communicate with the service department, I picked the car up and coughed up the $200 “diagnostic” fee for nothing. Once I picked up the car I finally got the service report and the diagnosis was “blown head gasket.” I did not have a single symptom of a blown head gasket- no coolant in the oil, no overheating, no smoke out of the exhaust, coolant was clean in the over flow tank with no bubbling.

I immediately drove to S&S Auto for a second opinion and they quickly found metal material in my oil and no symptoms of a head gasket issue. Long either completely missed this or did not want to tell me. I personally saw the shavings in the oil when I picked it up from S&S. They advised me about the warranty campaign Hyundai has on the 2.4liter engines and they didn’t charge me anything for the diagnostics. After doing my own research I decided to take it back to a dealership to have them handle the situation. I called the service director-John- at Long Hyundai to explain the situation and told him I was taking the car to a different Hyundai service center to reassess. He did not care that I was taking it to another dealership after Long has misdiagnosed the issue. John just told me, “Well let me know what they find.” (Tried getting a hold of him multiple times since and have never gotten a call back)

After moving the car to a third shop, this time Mnt View Hyundai, which is about an hour from my house, I talked to Brian about what was going on and he stated they have been cleaning up a lot of issues from Long. After he had the car for a couple of days he stated he had found the metal shavings in the oil and that the car was misfiring and it should be taken care of under Hyundai’s warranty campaign 953 for excessive bearing wear on the crank. He went back and forth with Hyundai Motors America and I had to give them all my receipts for the oil changes I had done and they stated that my issue was not covered under warranty since my engine wasn’t knocking or locked up yet (basically because it hadn’t left me stranded on the side of the road), but that they would cover 85% of the replaced engine. After fighting for another week and hours on the phone with Hyundai’s warranty departments and Hyundai customer care with no resolve, I had agreed to cover the 15% that Hyundai wouldn’t cover. I was still mad they wouldn’t cover 100% from their own warranty, but it was better knowing Long was going to charge me $7-8k. Brian helped me get a rental car covered from Hyundai since some of the items were on back order. I was very grateful for that since I hadn’t had the car for two weeks at this point.

A couple weeks later Brian called me and stated the car should be ready in a day or two and suggested random replacements, like air filters and brakes (all I take care of myself and have receipts on the last time I changed them) I picked up the car and paid my 15% of the cost which ended up being $828. I told him I wanted a test drive, no offense to him or the dealership, but I can’t trust anyone. Upon entering the vehicle I noticed the abs light and traction light on and the blind spot detection wasn’t working. I took it for a drive and went back and talked to Brian about that, stating there was no issue with this when I brought it. He had a tech sheet stating they ran the code when they got the car and it was on. I asked why it was never brought up to me while the car was in his shop for almost 3 weeks. He stated the tech ran some tests and stated it was operating properly and didn’t want to sell me a part I didn’t need. I stated having the abs and traction light on could be dangerous and could malfunction and he stated “it won’t lock up” and “it’s fine”. However, he did offer to fix the issue for free labor and I pay for the part, which was $360. I told him I wasn’t giving Hyundai any more money and drove my car home with all three of those lights on my dash. I am glad the car has a new engine and Brian did help me out with a lot of things, but there are still issues that should have been taken care of that just weren’t. The last month with the car and dealing with all of Hyundai has been beyond frustrating and I now have a car I don’t trust or feel safe in. They have definitely lost me and my family as customers and I hope anyone reading this will think twice before buying anything made by Hyundai.

[anthonybelyea]

It is a weird world we live in when it's cheaper to throw something away then it is to repair it. The amount of Natural Resources being wasted is insane!! Love your videos cheers from Atlantic Canada👍😎🇨🇦

[damieg]

Sad part is if they checked the oil and topped it up right before taking it to the dealer for the recall, the outcome might have been totally different. It's no secret that dealers will look for any way to avoid a warranty claim, so in addition to keeping up with my periodic under-hood checks, I also always give my cars a once over, and clean them, before taking them to the dealer for service.

[blistery]

Last summer while at the lake, I spotted my 95 year old neighbour with the hood of her vehicle up and she was checking the fluids in prep for a 150 mile trip she would be making the next day. I had a good chat and let her know that over 90% of drivers today either don’t know or don’t care about the importance of what she was doing. How did we lose these important life skills?

[trom]

From first-hand experience, the oil consumption on these 2.4L Hyundai engines is greater than usual. You'll run through a FEW quarts between oil changes, so you have to be really on top of the levels. You won't get a low level or low pressure warning, either.

[alexramos]

Wow I was one of the lucky ones...

I have a '16 Hyundai Sonata where this exact thing happened. Keep in mind that I have always serviced my vehicle at the dealer, including all oil changes. Here's how it went down:

I went for an oil change, and on my way back home, the engine lost basically all its oil, and I was leaving a trail of oil on the highway. I had to immediately pull over because it felt like the engine was about to blow. Ended up calling a tow truck. I then called the dealership and told them what just happened, given that my car had literally left their shop less than 30 minutes before it happened. With this being the case, and my maintenance history with them, they replaced my engine free of charge, and now I also have lifetime warranty on the new engine they put in.

After the engine was replaced, they mentioned a lot of the same issues... flakes in the oil and cylinders, knocking, etc. I'm glad I was able to escape such a scenario as what this customer is going through.

[sfritts]

It's hard to feel sorry for that person if they aren't going to do the maintenance. Not checking your oil can be a very expensive habit, but in the end, it's on that person.

[ghiggs]

My oldest sister did this with the car our parents bought her. She never even checked the oil and ran it till it died. Her friends ended up putting a junk yard engine in it.

[FredFlintstone]

Note to self always make sure to top off fluid levels before issuing a car to a dealer for possible recall issues